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TerraDrive Universe:Talk page guidelines
The purpose of a TerraDrive Universe talk page is to provide space for editors/developers to discuss changes to its associated article or project page. Article talk pages should not be used by editors as platforms for their personal views or as advertisements for anything commercial or ideological. When writing on a talk page, certain approaches are counter-productive, while others facilitate good editing and development. The prime values of the talk page are communication, courtesy and consideration. The following list is designed to help TerraDrive Universe developers use talk pages effectively. Central points Maintain TDU policy The policies that apply to articles also apply (if not to the same extent) to talk pages. There is of course some reasonable allowance for speculation, suggestion and personal knowledge on talk pages, with a view to prompting further investigation, but it is usually a misuse of a talk page to continue to argue any point that has not met policy requirements. Assume good faith and treat the other person in the discussion as a fellow developer, who is a thinking, feeling person, trying to contribute positively to the TerraDrive Universe, just like you - unless, of course, you have objective proof to the contrary. By objective proof, it means something which can be validated by a third party. The simple fact that someone disagrees with you, is not proof of bad faith! How to use article talk pages *'Communicate': If in doubt, make the extra effort so that other people understand you, and you get a proper understanding of others. Being friendly is a great help. It is always a good idea to explain your views; it is less helpful for you to voice an opinion on something and not explain why. Giving an opinion helps in convincing others and reaching consensus. *'Keep on topic': Talk pages are not for general conversation. Keep discussions on the topic of how to improve the associated article. Irrelevant discussions are subject to removal. *'Be positive': Article talk pages should be used to discuss ways to improve an article; not to criticize, pick apart, or vent about the current status of an article or its subject. However, if you feel something is wrong, but aren't sure how to fix it, then by all means feel free to draw attention to this and ask for suggestions from others. *'Discuss edits': The talk page is particularly useful to talk about edits. If one of your edits has been reverted, and you change it back again, it is good practice to leave an explanation on the talk page and a note in the edit summary that you have done so. The talk page is also the place to ask about another editor's changes. If someone queries one of your edits, make sure you reply with a full, helpful rationale. *'Make proposals': New proposals for the article can be put forward for discussion by other editors if you wish. Proposals might include changes to specific details, page moves, merges or making a section of a long article into a separate article. Good practice *'Sign your posts': To sign a post, type four tildes (~~~~), and they will be replaced with your username and time stamp, like this: TonyHellmann 03:44 Feb 17, 2003 (UTC). Please note that it is impossible to leave an anonymous comment because your user name or IP address is recorded in the page history. *'Avoid excessive markup': It undermines a reasoned argument with the appearance of force through Italic text, Bolded text, and especially CAPITAL LETTERS, which are considered SHOUTING, and RANTING!!!!! Italics, however, can be usefully employed for a key word, to distinguish quoted text from new text and, of course, book titles etc. *'Be concise': If your post is longer than 100 words consider shortening it. Long, rambling messages are difficult to understand, and are frequently either ignored or misunderstood. If you need to make a detailed, point by point discussion, see below for how to lay this out. *'Keep the layout clear': Keep the talk page attractively and clearly laid out. Avoid repetition, muddled writing, and unnecessary digressions. Talk pages with a good attacks, such as calling someone an idiot. Instead, explain what is wrong with an edit and how to fix it. **'Don't threaten people': For example, threatening people with "moderators you know" or with having them banned for disagreeing with you. **'Don't make legal threats': Threatening a lawsuit is highly disruptive to the TerraDrive Universe. **'Never post personal details': Users who post what they believe are the personal details of other users without their consent may be blocked for any length of time, including indefinitely. *'Don't misrepresent other people:' The record should accurately show significant exchanges that took place, and in the right context. This usually means: ** Be precise in quoting others. ** As a rule, don't edit others' comments, including signatures. Exceptions are described in the next section. Editing comments Others' comments It is not necessary to bring talk pages to publishing standards, so there is no need to correct typing errors, grammar, etc. It tends to irritate the users whose comments you are correcting. Do not strikeout the comments of other editors without their permission. Never edit someone's words to change their meaning. Editing others' comments is not allowed. There are exceptions, however. Some are: * If you have their permission * Removing prohibited material such as libel and personal details * Removing personal attacks and incivility. This is controversial, and many editors do not feel it is acceptable; please read TDU:No personal attacks and TDU:Civility before removing anything. * When a long comment has formatting errors, rendering it difficult to read. In this case, restrict the edits to formatting changes only and preserve the content as much as possible. * On your own user talk page, you may remove comments from others, although archiving is generally preferred and removing comments without any reason is generally regarded uncivil. The text of another user's comment, however, may never be directly edited to misrepresent the person or change the meaning of the comment. *If a signature violates the guidelines for signatures. Own comments It is best to avoid having to change one's comments. Other users may already have quoted you with a diff (see above) or have otherwise reacted to your statement. Therefore, use "Show preview" and think about how your statement may look to others before you save it. Changing or deleting comments after someone replied is likely to cause problems, because it will put the reply in a different context. In that case you have several options: * Ask the person who replied (on their talk page) if it's OK to delete or change your text * use strike-through or a place holder to show it is a retrospective alteration. ** Strike-through is typed like this and ends up like this. ** A placeholder is a text such as "and stupid comment removed by the author.". This will ensure that your fellow editors' irritated responses still make sense. In turn, they may then wish to replace their reply with something like, "response to deleted comment removed. Apology accepted." ** Please do not strike-through other editor's comments without their permnission. Disputes If you are having a disagreement or a problem with someone's behavior, please read TDU:Resolving disputes. Technical and format standards Layout *'Start new topics at the bottom of the page': If you put a post at the top of the page, it is confusing and can also get easily overlooked. The latest topic should be the one at the bottom of the page. Then the next post will go underneath yours and so on. This makes it easy to see the chronological order of posts. A quick way to do this is to use the + tab next to the edit button on the talk page you are on. *'Separate multiple points with whitespace': If a single post has several points, it makes it clearer to separate them with a paragraph break (i.e. a blank line). *'Thread your post': Use indentation to clearly indicate who you are replying to, as with usual threaded discussions. Normally colons are used, not bullet points. New topics and headings on talk pages *'Start new topics at the bottom of the page': If you put a post at the top of the page, it is confusing and can also get easily overlooked. The latest topic should be the one at the bottom of the page. *'Make a new heading for a new topic': It will then be clearly separated into its own section and will also appear in the table of contents at the top of the page. A heading is easy to create with either side of the words, as in Heading . The "+'" tab next to the "Edit this page" tab also allows you to post a comment. Enter a subject/heading in the resulting edit page, and it will automatically become the section heading. *'Keep headings on topics related to the article. It should be clear from the heading which aspect of the article you wish to discuss. Do not write "This article is wrong" but address the specific issue you want to discuss. **'Don't praise in headings': You may wish to commend a particular edit, but this could be seen in a different light by someone who disagrees with the edit! **'Don't be critical in headings': This includes being critical about details of the article. Those details were written by individual editors, who may experience the heading as an attack on them. **'Never address other users in a heading': A heading should invite all editors to respond to the subject addressed. Links, time and page name *'Make links freely': Links to articles are as useful on talk pages as anywhere else, and links to non-existent articles can help get them onto the list. *'When mentioning the name of the page, cite the current name': This applies when a page is moved (i.e. retitled). In such a case, the Talk page is usually also moved. If you continue to use the old name, it will be confusing, especially for new editors to the article. User talk pages More latitude is extended for user talk pages. Policy does not prohibit users from removing comments from their own talk pages, though archiving is preferred. For more information, see TDU:User page. See also *TDU:User page *TDU:Etiquette